Xbox Series X Unboxing

It’s finally happening: The Xbox Series X has arrived for review, and Microsoft is letting me post these unboxing photos.

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This thin little box contains the documentation, cables, and controller
A high-quality HDMI cable and the power cable are included
The gorgeous and grippy new Xbox Wireless Controller

Time to play!

And … that’s all I can show you: The first-run experience and any other observations will need to wait for a future day, sorry.

But there is one more thing…

I also received an Xbox Series S for review, and Brad and I will be unboxing it on First Ring Daily today at 9 am ET. I’ll link to the video when it’s up, which should happen by 9:30 or so.

UPDATE: You can find the video unboxing of the Xbox Series S here.

But in the meantime, here’s a teaser…

 

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Conversation 35 comments

  • mclark2112

    Premium Member
    28 October, 2020 - 9:11 am

    <p>I'll be particularly interested in using the One S as a media Center. I'm trying to consolidate the number of devices tied into my TV. </p>

    • crownseven

      Premium Member
      28 October, 2020 - 9:22 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#589250">In reply to mclark2112:</a></em></blockquote><p>Go get yourself a nuc or a nvidia shield if you want a media center device. </p>

      • lecter

        28 October, 2020 - 9:37 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#589261">In reply to CrownSeven:</a></em></blockquote><p>I second the Nvidia Shield…the NUC or any other HTPC is only good if all you watch is your own (or self-obtained) media. Clients for Netflix, Prime Video, etc. are either unofficial and crap or official and not remote-friendly. The Shield, however, has a Kodi client as good as anything on the PC, so you've got the personal media angle covered as well. </p>

        • mclark2112

          Premium Member
          28 October, 2020 - 9:44 am

          <blockquote><em><a href="#589263">In reply to lecter:</a></em></blockquote><p>I've been struggling with android based players and KODI for large FLAC files and 5.1 audio. And with the price of the Shield, I might as well grab an xbox. All my "owned" media is on a Synology NAS, everything else id Apple or Amazon. Just looking for something that can use the NFS shares and has a decent interface. Trying MRMC (KODI fork) on and Apple TV right now, but at $200, I'm again paying a lot for a media device. </p>

          • beckoningeagle

            Premium Member
            28 October, 2020 - 10:00 am

            <blockquote><em><a href="#589264">In reply to mclark2112:</a></em></blockquote><p>Some time ago I bought a lifetime subscription to Plex. At the time it was only 80.00. Then I repurposed an old PC to be the Plex Server. The Plex App is available for XBox, Smart TVs, Apple, Roku and many other. This way I get access to all my media and I have all the clients in my Smart TV. With the Smart TV, XBox and Plex I pretty much have everything I need, and remote friendly. The Plex server is also available for the Synology NAS, but depending on the model you have the encoding performance may not be as you would expect.</p>

  • faustxd9

    Premium Member
    28 October, 2020 - 9:19 am

    <p>Sweet! Both very excited and tempered by not knowing when my Amazon order will be delivered. Originally I was going to take the day off to enjoy the new console and some COD. Oh well, hopefully soon :-)</p>

  • madthinus

    Premium Member
    28 October, 2020 - 10:01 am

    <p>Oh so not fair. Looking forward to my unboxing in two weeks time!</p>

  • saqrkh

    28 October, 2020 - 10:09 am

    <p>I'm a little lucky in that I haven't played many console games in the last 3 years (only exceptions being Zelda BTOW, Ace Combat 7, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, and Pokemon Sword). </p><p><br></p><p>I ordered a Series X on All-Access to play through the Game Pass catalog: Doom Eternal, Outer Worlds, Gears 5, Forza 7, Dragon Quest, Nier:Automata, Ori, etc. It's a good service to play through games I am intrigued by, but not interested enough to pay up (yet). </p><p><br></p><p>The revolving door of losing titles is a big trade-off; the lesson is if you really like a game, then buy it. So, in a sense, Game Pass can be pricey, but it really depends on your case. </p><p><br></p><p>I think it's still better to pay $15 CAD/mo to thoroughly try out games that look good to you. I paid full price for Red Dead Redemption 2 and Dragon Age Inquisition, played them for 2 weeks each, and then lost interest. You can avoid that with Game Pass (and EA Play). You'd still need to wait for the title (if it does at all) on Game Pass, at which point getting a game on sale a few years later is alluring too. </p><p><br></p><p>Anyways, I can't wait. I got both the Series X and the PS5 Digital Edition to upgrade from my Xbox One and PS4, respectively. I'll use my PS+ to check out God of War, Persona 5, Last of Us Remastered, etc on the PS5 too. </p>

    • remc86007

      28 October, 2020 - 10:16 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#589270">In reply to saqrkh:</a></em></blockquote><p>I've played as many console games as I have had time for and yet I still have a significant backlog of games I want to play from the past year or two. Thankfully many of them are getting enhanced for the Series X! I don't mind at all that there aren't many launch titles for the new systems; I'm happy to have some time to get through my backlog. </p>

      • saqrkh

        28 October, 2020 - 11:10 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#589272">In reply to remc86007:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>It's disappointing that the XSX/XSS aren't getting a marquee launch title. I get Demon's Soul and Miles Morales aren't everyone's cup of tea, but they're pretty appealing. Sure, not ground-breaking, but a good start. </p><p><br></p><p>I wish Microsoft split the next Halo efforts into 2 parts: a Halo Guardians-based (i.e., using the same engine, assets, etc) FPS for the launch window, and Halo Infinite for a true next-gen experience. They could've made a prologue to Infinite's story by having a single-player campaign on what happened on the ring before the Master Chief arrived. </p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

        • thretosix

          30 October, 2020 - 10:46 am

          <blockquote><em><a href="#589279">In reply to saqrkh:</a></em></blockquote><p>It's not that they aren't good games, Spider Man looks great, just as you say though just not my cup of tea, it seems more like a demo, looks like a short adventure game that is pretty that doesn't have the depth to justify the price. Not really into Spider Man either. Demon Souls is just a remake. The thing that made me sick of Sony over the years was I couldn't play last gen games on my new console, they made me buy them all over each time. The PS5 looks nice and all, I just stopped caring because they got too greedy.</p>

  • SĂ©bastien Michel Harvey

    28 October, 2020 - 10:21 am

    <p spellcheck="false">I'm red jelly</p>

  • thretosix

    28 October, 2020 - 12:01 pm

    <p>First time I've gotten a good look at the top ventilation, how they get that green look it almost appeared sealed before. Looks nice.</p>

  • olavgm

    28 October, 2020 - 12:17 pm

    <p>13 days, 13 days, 13 days…</p>

  • the escalation

    28 October, 2020 - 12:53 pm

    <p>Intriguing how much the XSX looks like a desktop PC tower…</p>

  • tjott

    28 October, 2020 - 1:14 pm

    <p>Maybe it's just me, but shouldn't the device that doesn't have an optical drive and requires full local storage of games have the bigger internal drive? Do disc-based games only use the disc for authentication once the game is installed or is some of the game content still accessed from the disc?</p>

    • kenosando

      Premium Member
      28 October, 2020 - 1:31 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#589293">In reply to tjott:</a></em></blockquote><p>That is my major complaint against the Series S. I think they knew the price point Sony was targeting with their disc-less version of the PS5, and really wanted to beat it. I feel they compromised <em>too</em> much with a lesser GPU <strong>and</strong> no optical drive, instead of one or the other. They know they will get a ton of sales at $299 compared to $399 and $499, and from there, they know the digital sales will be flowing in since they can't get games any other way (used, second-hand, rentals, etc.).</p>

  • crunchyfrog

    28 October, 2020 - 1:17 pm

    <p>Has Microsoft indicated that they will be able to produce enough Series X's to meet demand through the rest of '2020?</p>

    • mrbill

      28 October, 2020 - 2:18 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#589295">In reply to crunchyfrog:</a></em></blockquote><p>The pre-orders sold out in a few hours, so I'm guessing that would be a big no, same situation as with every launch. </p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      29 October, 2020 - 8:45 am

      No, they don’t expect to meet demand this holiday season.

  • dspeterson

    Premium Member
    28 October, 2020 - 1:26 pm

    <p>This makes me really wish I had the space to put the Series X standing up, but I don't so it will be sitting on it's side.</p>

  • Jogy

    Premium Member
    28 October, 2020 - 2:52 pm

    <p>Shouldn't this be called for short "UnXBoxing"?</p>

  • martinusv2

    Premium Member
    28 October, 2020 - 3:11 pm

    <p>Hello Paul,</p><p><br></p><p>In your review, could you test the heat and noise the console will make?</p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      29 October, 2020 - 8:41 am

      Yep.

  • Althalus

    Premium Member
    28 October, 2020 - 3:39 pm

    <p>May sound like a silly question but what is the length of the power cable please? </p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      29 October, 2020 - 8:41 am

      Looks like 3 feet.

  • Jim Lewis

    28 October, 2020 - 5:55 pm

    <p>Nice! If you get around to testing MSFS 2020, let us know how it works on the Xbox Series X!</p>

    • sammyg

      29 October, 2020 - 2:17 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#589401">In reply to Jim_Lewis:</a></em></blockquote><p>I thought that was not out for the Xbox yet?</p>

  • glenn8878

    28 October, 2020 - 6:12 pm

    <p>You were crying about not being able to buy an Xbox. Now you’re getting 2. Not fair. </p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      29 October, 2020 - 8:39 am

      Crying.

      I feel like I correctly complained that Microsoft screwed up preorders, disappointing many customers. I guess there are different ways to look at it.

  • bleeman

    Premium Member
    28 October, 2020 - 9:27 pm

    <p>What!!!!! Microsoft didn't send you an Xbox Refrigerator to unbox? đŸ˜‰ </p>

  • sammyg

    29 October, 2020 - 7:17 am

    <p>I would have thought Microsoft would have given you of all people, one earlier?? At least a dozen you tubers have had one and basically reviewed the heck out of the XSX. </p><p><br></p><p>Not sure if anyone has had a XSS but I am not interested in it. </p>

  • Paul Thurrott

    Premium Member
    29 October, 2020 - 8:44 am

    So, this message was marked as spam in the CMS and I approved it. Not sure why.

  • davehelps

    Premium Member
    29 October, 2020 - 1:55 pm

    <p>In your review, please can you test whether Xbox Series X compatible with Surface Pen Loop? ?</p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      30 October, 2020 - 8:57 am

      lol I uh … hm.

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